4 ms·

He (and Sam Altman for all YC companies) should have the startup(s) all de-locate to the same town that's within driving distance of the Silicon Valley. I bet

by jpao79 9y ago

He (and Sam Altman for all YC companies) should have the startup(s) all de-locate to the same town that's within driving distance of the Silicon Valley. I bet you could convince a lot of tech people to move to Santa Cruz or Monterey. You could also recruit from UC Santa Cruz and Cal Poly. Both downtown Santa Cruz and downtown Monterey feel pretty small town urban-y. Plus the Silicon Valley VC's can play golf at Pebble Beach or Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton and make a weekend getaway out of it AND get a business trip tax write-off for mileage and hotel says. And maybe before descending on the town you can get the city council and a developer to agree to build high density housing in the downtown core. This Palo Alto planning commissioner/Palantir spokesperson for high density housing in Palo Alto ended up moving to Santa Cruz: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/08/10/palo-alto-planning-commissioner-quits-over-high-housing-cost/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/08/10/palo-alto-planning-com...

throwaway2048 9y ago
That would fix things for a few years at best, and then it would likely end up even more expensive than the bay area.
- jpao79 9y ago
  Within Monterey/Santa Cruz proper that is true, but there is quite a bit of farmland in Salinas for single family homes. Water might be an issue. Going north, you could head toward Rohnert Park/Sonoma. SamA and PG will just need to get in the car a bit more instead of taking Caltrain/BART.
myrandomcomment 9y ago
I lived in Menlo Park for 8 years with my family. When I moved there the startup I went to work for was a 5 minute walk from my house. My current startup is also in Menlo. A year ago my wife and wanted a larger place. We looked in Menlo and PA. $3M for a teardown / needs tons of work. After thinking about it we started to look outside of the area. School district was a key factor of course. We ending up going as far up the mountain from Los Gatos as we could and still be in the school district. $1.3M+500K remodel. Half of my companies employees are remote. We use G-apps with Meeting and Slack. It works well. I drive into the office 2 days a week timing the drive to be outside of traffic hows. 50KM drive outside of traffic is 30 minutes, with traffic is 1.5 hours. I have friends that moved to Morgan Hill, Gilroy and take the CalTrain in. We other developers relocate out of state because of the cost of living. The cost of housing in the main areas is stupid, even if you can afford it. Menlo and PA are doing NOTHING to support the high density housing required to make things better. I agree there is something unique about being able to have everyone around you in the same line of business (tech) and it is great for making contacts, etc. However the cost are really starting to outweigh the benefits. The bay area needs to look to places like Tokyo as an example of how to build out from the trains to the housing.
- jpao79 9y ago
  Been meaning to checkout Morgan Hill. I hear downtown Morgan Hill is pretty happening these days. I also noticed that there is a self-driving car company down there: http://velodynelidar.com http://velodynelidar.com Are there any other interesting tech companies down there? Nice thing is that if you live near downtown you could take the Caltrain up to downtown MTV or PA.
  - myrandomcomment 9y ago
    The downtown has some nice restaurants and a good cigar shop & bar. The main issue is the Cal-Train schedule is limited due to the fact that it goes to a single track down that far.
  - joejerryronnie 9y ago
    Morgan Hill / Gilroy area is fantastic - small town feel, slower pace of life, diverse population, significant rural element, growing dining/entertainment options. Housing is certainly less expensive than the peninsula but by no means cheap compared to the rest of the state/country. I would still plan on spending $1 million plus but you will get a big new single family home instead of a 50 year old 1200 sf beater. The downside is, of course, the commute. There are some alternate transportation options, e.g. Caltrain, some companies like Apple run buses down to Morgan Hill, but this will limit the geographic area that you can reasonably commute to. IMHO San Jose, Santa Clara, & Cupertino are doable, Sunnyvale & Mountain View are pushing it, and Palo Alto is too far. There are a few companies in South Santa Clara county (and hopefully this will dramatically increase over time) but you'd still probably be commuting north.
    - jpao79 9y ago
      Downtown San Jose's re-development would be pretty big for Morgan Hill. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/real-estate-a-developer-describes-the-epic-impact-of-googles-plans-for-downtown-san-jose/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/real-estate-a-develope... http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Googles-Property-Buying-Spree-in-Downtown-San-Jose-Continues-439684563.html http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Googles-Property-Buying... Looks to be about 35 minutes to downtown San Jose via Caltrain. That's do-able. The younger employees could live downtown in San Jose and the employees with kids could live in Morgan Hill. If YCombinator (and Zapier) were to move from Mountain View to Downtown San Jose that'd be a huge symbolic move for San Jose.
nradov 9y ago
Santa Cruz and Monterey are barely cheaper, and they have very little extra housing available. If you want to actually save any money you'll have to head inland toward the Central Valley.
ThrustVectoring 9y ago
Reno seems like a good option, not counting quality-of-life (I've never been there, so couldn't say). Housing is actually reasonably priced, it's in Nevada with no state income tax, and it's a 4 hour drive or a pretty cheap bus ride to get back to SF. I know a few folks who work remotely with SF companies that live in Reno. They'll make the trek occasionally to come into the office, too.
- jpao79 9y ago
  Reno is pretty sweet, pretty decent outdoor activities. Up and coming downtown too. Plus your friends who stay in the Bay Area can visit you on the weekend during the ski season. I remember when I was in semiconductor sales engineer I visited International Gaming Technology out there (video game slot machines). It was surprisingly not very desert like at all in the spring. The fields were covered in green grass.

by jpao79 9y ago

throwaway2048 9y ago

That would fix things for a few years at best, and then it would likely end up even more expensive than the bay area.

jpao79 9y ago
Within Monterey/Santa Cruz proper that is true, but there is quite a bit of farmland in Salinas for single family homes. Water might be an issue. Going north, you could head toward Rohnert Park/Sonoma. SamA and PG will just need to get in the car a bit more instead of taking Caltrain/BART.

myrandomcomment 9y ago

I lived in Menlo Park for 8 years with my family. When I moved there the startup I went to work for was a 5 minute walk from my house. My current startup is also in Menlo. A year ago my wife and wanted a larger place. We looked in Menlo and PA. $3M for a teardown / needs tons of work. After thinking about it we started to look outside of the area. School district was a key factor of course. We ending up going as far up the mountain from Los Gatos as we could and still be in the school district. $1.3M+500K remodel. Half of my companies employees are remote. We use G-apps with Meeting and Slack. It works well. I drive into the office 2 days a week timing the drive to be outside of traffic hows. 50KM drive outside of traffic is 30 minutes, with traffic is 1.5 hours. I have friends that moved to Morgan Hill, Gilroy and take the CalTrain in. We other developers relocate out of state because of the cost of living. The cost of housing in the main areas is stupid, even if you can afford it. Menlo and PA are doing NOTHING to support the high density housing required to make things better. I agree there is something unique about being able to have everyone around you in the same line of business (tech) and it is great for making contacts, etc. However the cost are really starting to outweigh the benefits. The bay area needs to look to places like Tokyo as an example of how to build out from the trains to the housing.

jpao79 9y ago
Been meaning to checkout Morgan Hill. I hear downtown Morgan Hill is pretty happening these days. I also noticed that there is a self-driving car company down there: http://velodynelidar.com http://velodynelidar.com Are there any other interesting tech companies down there? Nice thing is that if you live near downtown you could take the Caltrain up to downtown MTV or PA.
- myrandomcomment 9y ago
  The downtown has some nice restaurants and a good cigar shop & bar. The main issue is the Cal-Train schedule is limited due to the fact that it goes to a single track down that far.
- joejerryronnie 9y ago
  Morgan Hill / Gilroy area is fantastic - small town feel, slower pace of life, diverse population, significant rural element, growing dining/entertainment options. Housing is certainly less expensive than the peninsula but by no means cheap compared to the rest of the state/country. I would still plan on spending $1 million plus but you will get a big new single family home instead of a 50 year old 1200 sf beater. The downside is, of course, the commute. There are some alternate transportation options, e.g. Caltrain, some companies like Apple run buses down to Morgan Hill, but this will limit the geographic area that you can reasonably commute to. IMHO San Jose, Santa Clara, & Cupertino are doable, Sunnyvale & Mountain View are pushing it, and Palo Alto is too far. There are a few companies in South Santa Clara county (and hopefully this will dramatically increase over time) but you'd still probably be commuting north.
  - jpao79 9y ago
    Downtown San Jose's re-development would be pretty big for Morgan Hill. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/real-estate-a-developer-describes-the-epic-impact-of-googles-plans-for-downtown-san-jose/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/14/real-estate-a-develope... http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Googles-Property-Buying-Spree-in-Downtown-San-Jose-Continues-439684563.html http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Googles-Property-Buying... Looks to be about 35 minutes to downtown San Jose via Caltrain. That's do-able. The younger employees could live downtown in San Jose and the employees with kids could live in Morgan Hill. If YCombinator (and Zapier) were to move from Mountain View to Downtown San Jose that'd be a huge symbolic move for San Jose.

nradov 9y ago

Santa Cruz and Monterey are barely cheaper, and they have very little extra housing available. If you want to actually save any money you'll have to head inland toward the Central Valley.

ThrustVectoring 9y ago

Reno seems like a good option, not counting quality-of-life (I've never been there, so couldn't say). Housing is actually reasonably priced, it's in Nevada with no state income tax, and it's a 4 hour drive or a pretty cheap bus ride to get back to SF. I know a few folks who work remotely with SF companies that live in Reno. They'll make the trek occasionally to come into the office, too.

jpao79 9y ago
Reno is pretty sweet, pretty decent outdoor activities. Up and coming downtown too. Plus your friends who stay in the Bay Area can visit you on the weekend during the ski season. I remember when I was in semiconductor sales engineer I visited International Gaming Technology out there (video game slot machines). It was surprisingly not very desert like at all in the spring. The fields were covered in green grass.